Participatory futures methods: towards adaptability and resilience in climate-vulnerable communities

Abstract

This paper points to the value of broadening the palette of approaches to climate change futures beyond the dominant methods of empiricist predictive trends and expert scenarios. The first half of the paper contextualizes the climate change discourse within the field of futures studies and explores potential points of dialogue between a number of futures approaches and the most prominent of the climate protection work. The second half of the paper introduces a case study of community based participatory approaches involving community scenario writing and community visioning, which enacts a collaborative engagement between futures researchers and climate-vulnerable communities. However, any participatory futures method chosen to facilitate climate change adaptation must be context aware in both its design and implementation if it is to facilitate adaptability and resilience in climate-vulnerable communities